Volunteer update
November 29, 2011 by dyertrust
As this year is almost to a close, we were very fortunate to have such wonderful volunteers and interns this year. From 18 year old gape year to 68 year old retired war veteran as well as soldiers and marines from the USA and Afghanistan to some that accidently stumbled onto our programme. Some were here for only a week as this is the only time their vacation allows and some were here for a month and extended for a another couple of months.
The main attraction of course were the Great White Sharks but we are also happy to have some of our whale volunteers pass through. Just like the volunteers that amazed us this year, our sharks, whales, dolphins, seals and penguins did their bit to show off as well.
The shark sightings have been great and happy to report that there are some big females in the bay area. The activity have just been great and a lot of jumping sharks. Some of the volunteers were fortunate to witness a predation on their first day out at sea. The whales surprised us again by being curious around the boat and putting their head out of the water and lurking at the clients and volunteers. This is always a great feeling to see these huge beautiful animals be so gracious and mesmerising.
Here is what some of our volunteers had to say as well:
‘I just wanted to say thank you so, so much again for the experience at Marine Dynamics – fantastic sharks, fantastic people, and the most fantastic atmosphere of anywhere I’ve ever been. You guys have given me the best month of my life, hands down, and it was so, so hard to leave you on Friday. Please send my regards to the other vols, the biologists and the crew, and keep a look out for me again – I may just be coming back!
Thank you so much again,
Tom Weigall – UK’
‘I just wanted to let you know that I made my way well back home to Germany on Sunday after a quite long travel of almost 24 hours.Now, it is already my second day back at work and the colleagues were really interested to hear how the trip was and my experiences with the sharks.Thanks to you, Pepe and all the other people working for Marine Dynamics it was a fantastic stay in Kleinbaai although it was only for 1 week. I enjoyed it a lot and can really recommend to volunteer for a while with the Great White Sharks.
Alex – Germany’
We are also very proud of our volunteers and interns that join this programme because even though when they stay longer than 2 weeks, a part of their programme fee goes towards our Face of NeedPenguin project and they contribute to a penguin house and receive a certificate but some of them feel they want to do more. We have had so many volunteers and interns in these last couple of months that have taken their own pocket money and bought shark blocks to help with research and also the penguin project. (visit old.dict.org.za for more information on our programmes) Amongst all the volunteers and interns that donated, a very big thank you. And to Tom Wiegall for his very generous contribution, it really means a lot to us and will help tremendously with research.
